Bea

Hi!

My name is Bea van Dijk. I am 49 years old and originally come from Uden, in Brabant.
I have now lived in Venlo for many years together with Rob and our two boys Julian and Justin.

In January this year, on the advice of a friend, I went to have my blood pressure measured anyway. I had been having headaches at the back of my head/neck for some time, I also had less and less energy and my condition was slowly deteriorating. I had always dismissed these symptoms as ‘stress’, a wrong sitting position at the office and the cold winter period, and then I would just take another Ibuprofen and be on my way again.

By chance, a spot just became available at the GP at the time of making the appointment, this was just in time in hindsight (‘something about an angel on my shoulder?’). My blood pressure was dangerously high at 250/150. All alarm bells went off at that moment and I was rushed to the Viecuri hospital, where I was found to have acute kidney failure and damage to my heart.
My life was suddenly completely turned upside down and changed of necessity from being a busy person, always on and having lots of energy to having to rest a lot, work less and put my social life on the back burner (I was afraid of losing friendships as a result).

Even then, I continued to deny it subconsciously and thought, as naive as I was, that it would all be all right again, just drink enough water from now on, go to bed on time and we’ll move on. Unfortunately…. the doctor did help me out of this dream abruptly. ‘It won’t get better Bea, you have to make sure it doesn’t get worse’. All emotions passed by at that moment fear, sadness, amazement, despair but above all anger, I desperately wanted to know what caused it, what had I done wrong, should I have done differently or was it because of Corona? Why hadn’t I gone to the GP earlier? Of course, I didn’t get an answer to any question and eventually had to resign myself to it, accept it and deal with it. The anger gave way to a new challenge, trying to pick up running again and hopefully be able to regain more energy and fitness.

And then the Venloop Dream Team slogan came along: overcome your obestacles!
Long hesitated to write them, as I found it hard to admit to myself and the outside world that I was not going to succeed on my own. After a few days, I got a call from them. ‘Yes, I’m on the Dream Team’.

Working out with the other girls in the team does seem to work, as the structure of the training sessions and the many tips are great. Exercising outdoors is wonderful, even when the weather will soon be dark and inclement, the feeling that you are alive! With the help of our super trainers Pascal and Guido and our supporter Vivian, I hope to cross the 10 km finish line in 2025 together with the other Dream Team stars.
That would really feel like a new beginning to me, because I will have managed to overcome this obstacle.

I’m going to give it my best effort!

Greetings,

Bea

The wonderful adventure is sadly over … so with the writing of my last blog, all the beautiful memories come to the surface and I get a smile on my face, a tickle in my stomach and tears in my eyes.

My adventure started 30 weeks ago when I read the Venloop Dreamteam slogan of 2024: Overcome your obstacles!
I wanted so badly to try to run the 10 km one more time after I fell ill and had somewhat put my anger behind me.

Training with my Dreamteam mates I experienced as special and intense as I shared many of my personal emotions with them.
This, because I was looking for an explanation for often being tired in my head while running and this caused things not always to go smoothly. I too often called out Sas’ three-letter lingo word … Never, but never did I feel that they experienced this as a burden, just the opposite happened, they were proud of me and I of them after every training session.

I achieved my goal together with my running mates Sas, Jolan, Simone, Tamara, Romy, Anouk, Jolanda and our super trainers Pascal and Guido and Vivian our cheerful coordinator and my crutch who I could always call when I was having a hard time. Teamwork makes the dream work!

How glad I am that I embarked on this adventure. How I will never forget this memory. How glad I am to have met these beautiful people. How proud I am of myself and everyone. And how much I am going to miss everyone so much!!!

Thank you for this amazing adventure!

Kind regards from Bea